Alright, this post might come out a bit nonsensical because I’m super tired, and I barely did any actual labor today. Well, I did spend hours wrestling on a stupid U-Haul hitch for the Prius, but that’ll be another post.
After having the car back for a day, I decided to ramp up the speed. I found a local roadster guy who does mechanic work on the side, and arranged for him to come by this morning. Funny thing is, he turned out to be someone I knew from a few years ago, way back when I was first getting into cars. The main objective for today was to do a full timing belt service. I chose to have someone else that is more experienced with the process do this because it will get it done more efficiently and faster (it’d take me days to do it the first time). And the faster things are completed, the faster I can actually start driving this car. The whole glamor of working on cars wore off on me, it’s a chore when you have to do it over and over again.
I also had another plan in mind, and that was to get the differential taken out and a Tomei 2-Way LSD put in. So the differential was yanked in the morning and then I did my part in getting the LSD taken care of.
First, I drove the differntial and the Tomei unit down to Blacktrax Performance, but when I got there, the guy said he couldn’t guarantee completion by the end of the day. Not good enough for me, and the LSD install was also pretty pricey… so I then drove back up to Pete’s Gear Shop in Hayward. PR Motorsports sends all their differential and LSD work there. They were able to install the LSD with proper backlashing measurements, etc. by the end of the day – and were also much cheaper. Driving into Hayward sucked though, all the construction going on there makes the roads super congested and bumpy.
Anyway, back to the timing belt service… here’s a before picture of the engine bay (no point because I didn’t take an after picture yet, but whatever):
The box with all the new seals and belts, bought from Finishline-Rosenthal Mazda. I didn’t use the Continental timing belt from the kit, and instead bought a Gates racing belt.
The tear down. There was a layer of oil all over the front of this engine, now it’s all cleaned up and I can actually see the power-steering rack… The cam seals are the major suspects of the leak’s cause.
The garage.
Oh yeah, here’s Andrew… this guy can get shit done.
In the end, a good amount of stuff got taken care of today. Lot’s of work under the hood… valve cover replaced, spark plugs replaced with new NGK Iridium ones, new NGK spark plug wires, CAS o-ring replaced, valve cover gasket replaced, cam seals replaced, front crank seal replaced, water pump and gasket replaced, idler pulleys replaced, all belts replaced, Samco radiator hoses installed, and Koyo radiator installed.
Also, my new exhaust conveniently arrived in the mail this afternoon… so that was put on as well.
The Tomei 2-Way was done at the end of the day too, thankfully, and the differential was reinstalled. A pair of good jeans became a casualty during this. As I was carrying the housing into the shop, fluid spilled out of the axle openings and all over my pants…
A long day, but productive. I didn’t take many descriptive pictures or pictures at all, just wasn’t time.
awesome.